Microsoft Copilot.

Microsoft Copilot is Microsoft’s AI assistant: a conversational chatbot you can use free at copilot.microsoft.com, and — for Microsoft 365 subscribers — an assistant built directly into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. It is made for people who already live in Microsoft apps and want AI help inside them rather than in a separate tool. Paid plans for individuals start at $9.99 per month.

What is Microsoft Copilot?

Copilot comes in two layers. The first is Copilot Chat: a free, conversational assistant on the web, desktop and mobile that answers questions, drafts content and helps with research, available with a Microsoft account. The second layer lives inside the Microsoft 365 apps. There, Copilot can draft a document in Word from a file you point it at, analyse data in Excel, build a deck in PowerPoint, or summarise a long email thread in Outlook — all without you switching apps.

For work accounts, Microsoft adds Work IQ, a layer that grounds Copilot in your company’s content, your team’s roles and the context behind your projects, so answers reference your actual documents and meetings instead of generic knowledge. If you want a standalone chatbot with a very different personality, our Grok review is worth a look, and the full field is in our AI Chatbot category.

Key Features

• Free Copilot Chat: According to Microsoft, a free tier is available with a Microsoft account, with some capabilities subject to usage limits and more available through paid plans.
• Built into Microsoft 365 apps: Copilot works inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, where it can create, edit, summarise, analyse and transform content in context.
• Work IQ grounding: For organisations, Copilot’s answers are grounded in your work content — people, documents and tasks — rather than the open web alone.
• Multiple leading models, auto-selected: Copilot brings together leading AI models, and its Auto mode weighs accuracy, speed and cost to pick the right model for each request.
• Cowork and Researcher: Hand off multi-step work to Cowork across your apps and workflows, or use Researcher for deeper, report-style research.
• Agent Builder: Create personalised, work-grounded agents in minutes using natural language, and extend them with Copilot Studio when you need to scale.
• Everywhere you work: One Copilot across desktop, mobile and web, usable with voice, keyboard or pen, with work and personal accounts kept separate.

How to Use Microsoft Copilot

1. Open copilot.microsoft.com (or the Copilot app) and sign in with your Microsoft account to use the free chat.
2. Ask a question, paste text to summarise, or describe content you want drafted.
3. With a Microsoft 365 subscription, open Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook or Teams and use the Copilot pane inside the app.
4. Reference a file to have Copilot draft a document or presentation from it.
5. For bigger jobs, start a Cowork task or a Researcher report and review the finished output.

How much does Microsoft Copilot cost?

According to Microsoft’s official Copilot page, the plan options are:

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0	Copilot Chat with a Microsoft account on web, desktop and mobile; some capabilities have usage limits.
For individuals	$9.99/month	Copilot together with the productivity apps and cloud storage in a Microsoft 365 personal subscription.
For business	$23.50/user/month, paid yearly	Copilot with Work IQ, productivity apps, identity management, security and cloud storage.
For enterprise	$30.00/user/month, paid yearly	Copilot, productivity apps and Copilot Studio, with enterprise-grade security.

Last verified: October 2026

Pros

• The free chat tier is genuinely useful and needs only a Microsoft account.
• No other assistant is this deeply woven into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams.
• Work IQ grounding makes answers relevant to your actual projects and documents.
• Multiple top models under one roof, with Auto picking between them.
• Enterprise-grade security and a clean separation between work and personal accounts.

Cons

• The best in-app features require a Microsoft 365 subscription on top of the free chat.
• Business and enterprise pricing is per user, so costs scale quickly for large teams.
• On Microsoft 365 Family plans, Copilot AI features are currently available only to the subscription owner, not other family members.
• If you do not use Microsoft apps, much of Copilot’s advantage disappears.

Who should use Microsoft Copilot?

Copilot is the obvious choice for anyone whose workday already runs through Microsoft 365: office workers drowning in email and meetings, analysts living in Excel, and teams that want AI with enterprise security controls. Individuals get a solid free chatbot; organisations get an assistant that actually knows their documents. If your stack is Google or Apple instead, weigh up the alternatives in our AI Chatbot category first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Microsoft Copilot free?

Yes, Microsoft Copilot has a free tier available with a Microsoft account at copilot.microsoft.com, covering chat for questions, content creation and research. Some capabilities carry usage limits on the free tier, and paid Microsoft 365 plans — from $9.99 per month for individuals — unlock more, including Copilot inside the Office apps.

What is the difference between Copilot Chat and Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps?

Copilot Chat is the standalone conversational assistant on the web, desktop and mobile apps, and it is free with a Microsoft account. Copilot in Microsoft 365 apps is the paid layer: it works inside Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, drafting, summarising and analysing your content in context.

Which apps does Microsoft Copilot work in?

Microsoft Copilot is integrated into Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams, and it is also available as a standalone experience on the web, desktop and mobile. Inside the apps it can create and edit documents, analyse data, build presentations, summarise emails and meetings, and apply formatting for you.

Is Microsoft Copilot good for businesses?

Yes, Microsoft Copilot is designed for business use, with Work IQ grounding answers in your company’s content and enterprise-grade controls protecting data. Business plans start at $23.50 per user per month paid yearly, and Microsoft states that work and personal accounts are kept separate, with organisational protections tied to the work account.

Final Verdict

Microsoft Copilot wins on placement: it is the AI assistant that shows up exactly where most office work already happens. The free chat is a sensible starting point, and the paid tiers make the most sense for Microsoft 365 households and businesses that will actually use the in-app features daily. If your documents live in Word and your data lives in Excel, Copilot is the path of least resistance.

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